It's finally here! Track and field at Fredonia State University is underway and the Blue Devils did not disappoint in their first showing of the 2013-14 campaign.

This past Friday and Saturday Kent State University held their annual Golden Flash Gala marking the first of eight regular season indoor contests for the Men's and Women's Track and Field program here at Fredonia State. For a first contest, the Blue Devils performed incredibly breaking three school records, earning seven ECAC qualifying performances, & 43 SUNYAC qualifying performances.

Highlighting the women's competition was Sophomore Anna Dambacher. Anna started out her day with a personal best in the 400m with a time of 1:00.72 good enough for 4th on the Fredonia State all-time top ten list. Just an hour and twenty minutes later, she followed up her 400m performance with another personal best of 26.01 in the 200m, a performance that makes her the fastest Fredonia State female to ever run the event. This time not only earns her a trip to Boston, Ma. this March for the ECAC Indoor Championships, but also ranks second among all of NCAA Division III through week one of the indoor competition period.

The previous school record was held by Fredonia State All-American Sarah Hite with a time of 26.04 set in 2003.

Sophomore Kayleigh Wasielewski and Senior Kim Foltz also reserved their seats on the bus to Boston this winter. Kayleigh tied the third best high jump performance in FSU history with a jump 1.60 meters (5'3") to secure her seat, while Kim ran the 5th fastest 3K in school history with a 10:37.56 to punch her second straight ticket in two seasons to the ECAC Championships.

On the men's side, junior Zakk Hess and sophomore Collin Mulcahy stood out from the rest. Both men ran the 3,000m and both solidified their second straight trips to the Indoor ECAC Championships. Hess ran 8:43.76 good for a new personal best and the 8th fastest performance in FSU History. Mulcahy ran 8:44.85 for a new personal best.

Collin also competed in the mile running a time of 4:19.37, earning him a trip to Boston in that event as well. While Collin went down in distance Zakk went north to the 5,000m run for his second event of the weekend where he too qualified for the ECAC championships and ran the 4th fastest time in school history with a time of 15:04.94.

As a staff we are all very proud of the precedents set by our men and women in this competition. We hope to continue to gain momentum with our last competition before winter break tomorrow night at Rochester Institute of Technology. The meet begins at 4 pm starting with the 5,000m. If you live in the area we would love to see you! Stay tuned for results and reaction from the staff next week.